Tag Archives: Bobby Jindal

It’s Veterans Day. Just a reminder of the real issues that veterans have to go through from a blog called Ordinary Gentlemen. The world has changed as the author writes. Today, and everyday, we should celebrate our men and women who serve. LINK

I wonder how much of the difference between how the public felt about the boys in WWII vs. how they subconsciously regard the vets in Iraq or Afghanistan is embedded in the fact that in 1942 you just didn’t know what was going on with the boys for a long, long time… and today you have satellite phones. The whole town would have known how many men had gone missing, for months or more, and the collective unconscious would have been working that entire time, inventing horrible possibilities. You read these sorts of collections of letters and the stark nature of “not knowing” seeps through every line. The horror of hope.

More on Occupy Nashville. The governor wants the charges dropped against the protesters. LINK

The state now wants the trespassing charges against anti-Wall Street protesters dropped. A spokesman for Governor Bill Haslam has announced he will ask the District Attorney to dismiss the misdemeanor citations.

Mike Anger, who turned 30 while living at War Memorial Plaza, was arrested twice for violating curfew.

There’s some relief among the nearly 50 Occupy Nashville protesters that they won’t have to go through the hassle of clearing their names. But Mike Anger, who was arrested twice, says he also wanted to make his case.

So the THP went undercover for the Halsam Administration during Occupy Nashville. Betsy Phillips doesn’t buy there reports and apparently the occupiers knew what was going on. (Saucy Language Alert.) LINK

Well, until these conservative legislators and their staff provide some proof, I’m going to believe they were just looking for excuses to bully people they didn’t like.

Speaker Beth Harwell is playing the game with the capitol’s press corp. Not a dumb move but it is what it is. LINK

Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville said today that challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District next year is “not something high on my agenda right now.”

But the speaker isn’t ruling out a race.

Is Sen. Jim Kyle looking at other options from a press from local activists and constituents? Jackson Baker with the scoop. LINK

Jim Kyle, the Democrats’ leader in the state Senate and a longtime Shelby County legislator, says he woke up Tuesday morning of last week without a thought about running for another office, but he started getting phone calls urging him to consider a race for district attorney general next year.

Bingo!

“I hadn’t thought about it at all, but I had to respect the people who were talking to me about it, and I am thinking about it seriously,” Kyle said.

Presidential hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry is avoiding Nashville in his junket which is rather peculiar after his faux pas last night at a GOP Debate. LINK

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry struggled and stammered and finally failed to remember one of the federal agencies he would eliminate as president, Nashville donor Kline Preston saw a sound bite he knows will be replayed on endless repeat for months to come.

“I think it’s going to devastate his chances,” said Preston, an attorney who has given $1,000 to Perry’s campaign but now is supporting businessman Herman Cain for the Republican nomination.

Goodyear’s displaced workers in Union City are getting some federal help. LINK

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced a $3,448,259 grant to provide re-employment and support services to about 850 workers laid off in July due to the closure of Union City’s Goodyear plant.

The local tire plant actually shut down in mid-July, affecting nearly 1,900 workers at the plant.

Since then, there have been trade fairs and state programs that have been launched to assist the displaced workers from Goodyear as they pursued other careers.

Also on the heels of the Goodyear plant closure, the state Department of Economic and Community Development designated Obion County as a Tier III Enhancement County. That designation elevated Obion County to a high priority status in terms of tax credits for industrial development.

Quick Hits

The David Letterman/Rick Perry connection. You might want to see this as he was scheduled for Tennessee this week. LINK

Congressman Steve Cohen in the news about the “integrity of government.” LINK

Gov. Bobby Jindal and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey in a picture tweeted on Twitter. Nothing really there but thought it was interesting. We already said the Perry wasn’t there so just GOP celebrity news here. Carry on. LINK

Cathy McCaughan has some interesting good ideas about the Occupy Movement. LINK